Mixed components (JButton, JCombobox, JTextfield ...) in JToolBar don't align well, which makes the toolbar look bad/unprofessional. The alignment looks better in Metal Look&Feel than Motif.

The following test case which contains a toolbar with JButton, JComboBox and JTextFields will demonstrate the problem.

import com.sun.java.swing.*;
import com.sun.java.swing.tree.*;


import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;


class TestToolBar extends JFrame {
  JToolBar toolbar;
 
  public TestToolBar() {
 
    getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout());
    toolbar = createToolBar();
    getContentPane().add("North", toolbar);
    getContentPane().add("Center", new JLabel("JButton and JComboBox in ToolBar don't align well"));
  }

 

   /**
     * Create Menu Toolbar for the editor
     */
  protected JToolBar createToolBar(){

    toolbar = new JToolBar();
    JButton toolButton;

    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "new");
    // toolButton.addActionListener(new NewAction());
    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "importFile");
    // toolButton.addActionListener(new ImportAction());
    toolbar.addSeparator();
    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "cut");
    //toolButton.addActionListener(cutAction);
    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "copy");
    // toolButton.addActionListener(copyAction);
    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "paste");
    //toolButton.addActionListener(pasteAction);

    toolbar.addSeparator();
    addToggleTool(toolbar, "bold");
    //toolButton.addActionListener(new StyledEditorKit.BoldAction());
    addToggleTool(toolbar, "italic");
    addToggleTool(toolbar, "underline");
    
 
    toolbar.addSeparator();
    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "left");

    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "center");
 
    toolButton = addTool(toolbar, "right");


    toolbar.addSeparator();
    toolbar.add(createFontChoices());
    toolbar.add(createSizeChoices());
toolbar.add(new JTextField("This is a TextField"));
    return toolbar;
  }
    /**
     * Create Font Choices
     */
  JComboBox createFontChoices() {
    JComboBox fontChoices = new JComboBox();
    String[] fonts = getToolkit().getFontList();
    for (int i = 0; i < fonts.length; i++) {
      fontChoices.addItem(fonts[i]);
    }
    fontChoices.setEditable(true);
    fontChoices.setSelectedItem("Courier");
    fontChoices.setSize (new Dimension(100,17));

    return fontChoices;
  }

  JComboBox createSizeChoices() {
    JComboBox sizeChoices = new JComboBox();
    sizeChoices.setEditable(true);
    sizeChoices.setSize (new Dimension(20,17));
    String[] fontsizes = {"8","12", "14","16","18","20","24", "48"};
    for (int i = 0; i < fontsizes.length; i++) {
      sizeChoices.addItem(fontsizes[i]);
    }
    sizeChoices.setSelectedItem("12");
 
    return sizeChoices;
  }


  public JButton addTool(JToolBar toolbar, String name) {
    JButton b = (JButton) toolbar.add(new JButton(new ImageIcon("images/" + name + ".gif")));
  b.setToolTipText(name);
  b.setMargin(new Insets(0,0,0,0));
  return b;
  }

  public JToggleButton addToggleTool(JToolBar toolbar, String name) {
    JToggleButton b = (JToggleButton) toolbar.add(new JToggleButton(new ImageIcon("images/" + name + ".gif")));
  b.setToolTipText(name);
  b.setMargin(new Insets(0,0,0,0));
  return b;
  }
  
  public static void main(String s[]) {
    TestToolBar testTB = new TestToolBar();
 
    testTB.pack();
    testTB.show();

  }
 }